Synth sound on Zoom B3n Pedal?

[Lobstrosity]

I got a Zoom B3n about a year ago, and it has lots of fun effects and presets. I haven't found a combination of settings to make a good synth sound yet. The pre-set patch doesn't sound great!

Can anyone suggest what settings to use for a good synth sound? 

[Elfrasho]

I didn't find any usable synth sounds from my B3n. I loved mine too, but for synths, not much use. To be fair, my HX stomp is pretty useless for synths too.

[Al Krow]

22 minutes ago, Elfrasho said:

I didn't find any usable synth sounds from my B3n. I loved mine too, but for synths, not much use. To be fair, my HX stomp is pretty useless for synths too.

 

+1^^

 

Not yet come across a multifx that does synth sounds well, despite having owned and gigged quite a few! 

 

Dedicated synth pedals definitely seem to do the job better.

[JohnDaBass]

3 hours ago, Al Krow said:

 

+1^^

 

Not yet come across a multifx that does synth sounds well, despite having owned and gigged quite a few! 

 

Dedicated synth pedals definitely seem to do the job better.

So , what's your shortlist of recommendations @Al Krow ?

[ardi100]

I can get a few usable synth patches from my Boss GT1-B, but it's hampered by the number of effects you can use in any one patch.

 

I imagine it's much easier to build your own synth patches with fewer restrictions on the number of blocks of effects you can use?

[BigRedX]

16 hours ago, Al Krow said:

Not yet come across a multifx that does synth sounds well, despite having owned and gigged quite a few! 

 

Dedicated synth pedals definitely seem to do the job better.

And an actual keyboard synth will do the job even better.

[Al Krow]

3 hours ago, BigRedX said:

And an actual keyboard synth will do the job even better.

 

And a motorbike goes faster than a push-bike. But not everyone wants a motorbike?

Some of us are very content with "just" being bass players!

 

16 hours ago, JohnDaBass said:

So , what's your shortlist of recommendations @Al Krow ?

 

John - you've got me thinking! I'm going to pull together a pros / cons summary of some of the current "best of the bunch" synth pedals which may be of interest to you and a few others.

[Elfrasho]

I had the C4 and that was great. Although I've heard nothing but good things about the newer MXR Bass synth. pricey though.

[SumOne]

It kind of depends on what type of synth sound you want.

 

One way of doing it is Octaver and fuzz, and I seem to remember getting some quite good ambient pad type sounds with the B3N mucking about stacking drive, modulation, reverb, delays.  Add the slicer for some interesting sounds.

Generally, envelope filters can be great for it (but the filters in the B3N aren't up to much). 

 

For the sort of mono Bass synth bassline sounds you are probably after though: Future Impact, C4, or the MXR are probably the top choices. 

[Al Krow]

On 25/10/2025 at 19:34, JohnDaBass said:

So , what's your shortlist of recommendations @Al Krow ?

 

John - because you asked 😊

Synth pedal review.pdf

[BigRedX]

On 26/10/2025 at 10:55, Al Krow said:

And a motorbike goes faster than a push-bike. But not everyone wants a motorbike?

Some of us are very content with "just" being bass players!

 

@Al Krow I think what you want out of "synth bass" and what I want are two very different things which is why I wouldn't have bothered with anything synthy for the example you posted in another thread and why I am not satisfied with any of the synth bass pedals because none of them will give the control, evenness and consistency of sound that I can get from using a keyboard synth, or even better by programming it in my DAW.

 

And I am a bass player. I just haven't limited myself to solely the bass guitar for producing bass sounds. I'm "lucky" in that I have enough technical ability to be able to choose the most appropriate tool for the job, and from experience a plucked stringed instrument is not always the best choice. And having said that my technical ability on all the instruments I play is pretty limited, so IMO if I can do it anyone can!

[Al Krow]

12 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

 

@Al Krow I think what you want out of "synth bass" and what I want are two very different things which is why I wouldn't have bothered with anything synthy for the example you posted in another thread and why I am not satisfied with any of the synth bass pedals because none of them will give the control, evenness and consistency of sound that I can get from using a keyboard synth, or even better by programming it in my DAW.

 

And I am a bass player. I just haven't limited myself to solely the bass guitar for producing bass sounds. I'm "lucky" in that I have enough technical ability to be able to choose the most appropriate tool for the job, and from experience a plucked stringed instrument is not always the best choice. And having said that my technical ability on all the instruments I play is pretty limited, so IMO if I can do it anyone can!

 

I'm not denying that any of us who can ride a push bike could learn to ride a motor bike, if we wanted to? Just like we could take up keys, or any other instrument for that matter, if we wanted to. 

 

And I suspect most musos already know that synth keys are the premium product in the synth-tone space? No debate from me on that, and respect to you for doing both.

 

But it's why when bass players ask about bass synth pedals on a bass forum I don't immediately jump in and suggest they take up keys! And very much also vice versa if I was ever on a keyschat forum or thread.

 

 

 

 

 

[LukeFRC]

I think there's a place for questioning synth bass pedals and pointing out that an actual synth (or laptop and midi controller of choice) would do more better or whatever. 

 

But equally, as a non-piano player, I could stick a FI4 on my board and play synth bass stuff straight away with a fairly minimal learning curve (presuming reasonably clean technique), with no additional hardware or stage set-up changes. 

 

For what it's worth I'ld love a FI4 vip - it's an amazing little box... but I'ld also like a Arturia MiniFreak... not sure where the money for either will come from and how much I would use either....